‘It’s nothing to do with racism’, insist Kent residents fighting their local council

The SS Richard Montgomery was en route to France when disaster struck in the Thames Estuary.

It was August 1944, and the American Second World War Liberty cargo ship had made it all the way from Delaware, in the US, to the Kent coast before a blundering harbourmaster instructed the crew to drop anchor in hopelessly shallow waters. She broke her back on the sandbanks, the hull cracking open like an egg.

For 80 years, nobody has known quite what to do with the wreck, which is still packed with enough cluster bombs and other munitions to cause a colossal explosion.

To this day, the rotting masts can be seen rearing out of the water like three dark crucifixes, a permanent reminder of the hidden perils of these calm-looking seas.

Some things are best left undisturbed – which is how people living on the nearby Isle of Sheppey sometimes feel about their own hard-pressed community.

It is not that they don’t welcome outsiders: on the contrary, islanders would love to see more tourists and day trippers enjoying the beaches. After all, struggling shops, pubs and cafes sorely need extra business.

What they don’t need is more pressure on stretched public resources, which is why plans to house asylum seekers in some of the most luxurious accommodation available on the island caused quite an outcry.

Had Kent County Council had its way, some 50 young migrants would soon be settling into their rooms at Ocean Heights, a brand new building by the beach in the town of Minster on Sea.

Originally designed as a care home, the multi-million pound building boasts floor to ceiling windows; glass fronted balconies and glorious sea views out to SS Montgomery and beyond.

No wonder locals weren’t exactly thrilled when they discovered the council’s grand plan to use it for asylum seekers. It was to have been one of nine facilities in Kent designed for so-called “unaccompanied” migrants under the age of 18.

£4 million bill

As far as the local community was concerned, the rumoured £4 million bill to adapt and lease the property from the owners was a bitter enough pill to swallow.

Residents claim the council has spent the last few years cutting public services, from free public parking and a hostel for the homeless.

To rub salt into the wound, they have only recently closed a much older and shabbier care home down the road – forcing elderly residents to move to other accommodation further away.

Naturally, locals wonder why the old folk were not offered the opportunity to move into Ocean Heights, ahead of migrants.

Angry and blindsided (the council freely admits it kept the scheme quiet for as long as possible), the community fought back. In a dramatic display of “people power”, the residents of Minster on Sea mounted such a fierce protest against the plans that the owners of Ocean Heights had second thoughts about leasing the property to the council.

After several days of noisy demonstrations outside the property, the owners pulled out, accusing the council of mishandling the debacle.

At the Beach Bar and Restaurant just around the corner from Ocean Heights, campaigners are still drinking to their victory – though like so many people with genuine concerns about the scale of immigration in this country, they worry about being labelled “racist”.

It’s a seemingly baseless accusation that brought together people of all political persuasions and none, in an effort to block the proposal.

Matt Brown, a former chairman of the town council, says he got involved after becoming infuriated at the suggestion that concerned locals were bigots.

“We were made to feel like villains, for not wanting to welcome these ‘poor orphans,’ but it has nothing to do with racism,” he says angrily.

“The reality is that there are a lot of elderly people around here who are vulnerable and afraid.

Elderly moved out

“What you don’t do, in a very deprived area like this, is shut down facilities like the local care home, sending the old people away, when you have a new facility like Ocean Heights just up the road.”

Tesco worker William Fotheringham Bray, who hopes to oust the sitting Tory MP at the next election, feels the same way.

“The community did not take kindly to its elderly being moved out and a group of unknown young men being moved in. I am thankful that the community mobilised, and got the result they wanted,” he says. For his part, the Tory MP Gordon Henderson was equally opposed to the move.

The pub is an unpretentious kind of place, with a cheery landlord and a welcoming attitude to dogs. A large picture of King Charles hangs on the wall, hinting at a patriotism undented by considerable hardship on the Isle of Sheppey, where crime and unemployment rates are stubbornly high.

Several days after the owners of Ocean Heights pulled out of the migrant accommodation deal, the council was still paying for round-the-clock security on the property. Privately, the guards seem to sympathise with the locals, indicating with a discreet nod and a wink that they understand why feelings ran so high.

The furore has left Kent council scratching around for somewhere else. It is a sign of the growing anger in communities up and down the country as they struggle to adapt to the extraordinary scale of net migration.

The relentless influx, whether under visa schemes or by Channel boats, is putting intense pressure on local resources, with the county of Kent bearing much of the brunt.

In the last few days alone, several boatloads have made it from France to the south coast, leaving the authorities scrambling to find temporary housing for at least 700 more people.

Those who describe themselves as children – with or without supporting evidence – are entitled to special care, including dedicated social workers and accommodation that inspectors deem “homely” enough for “children”.

Ministers recently ordered town halls to stop using hotels – a policy that, for the time being, appears to be costing taxpayers even more money, as other facilities are identified and adapted.

Had the community not taken a stand, Ocean Heights would have been a first port of call for under-18s arriving by boat, or on the back of lorries at Dover.

The fear among locals is that some would have been “children with beards”: men in their 20s or even older, masquerading as teenagers, potentially bringing trouble to the area.

For Minster on Sea, the story is over – at least for now. For Kent council, however, it is only going to get worse. With every additional boatload of migrants, the search for suitable accommodation becomes more desperate.

As tensions rise with local communities, the fear is that peaceful protests could become very much uglier.